Falling Stars
by Jeminini
Summary: Lucy never joined Fairy Tail and became a solo mage. What happens when she encounters a blonde lightning mage with a bad attitude?
1. Chapter 1

**Falling Stars - Blondie**

 **Oh look! Another LaLu** **story!**

 **This is a new story, set in an AU where Lucy never joined Fairy Tail** **and she and Laxus are mates.**  
 **For those who have seen my other stories, yes, I** **** ** _kind of_** **have an obsession with Laxus and Lucy being together. LaLu** **FTW!**

 ***Sadly I do not own Fairy Tail** **or any of its characters.***

Laxus pushed down the last of his queasiness as he and the Raijinshuu stepped off their train. They had arrived in Silver Lake, a medium-sized mining town who had been having trouble with a dark guild lately. Frankly, Laxus was happy to get away from the guild, especially now.  
Ever since Lisanna came back from Edolas, she and Natsu had picked up right where they left off and even went so far as to call themselves a couple. The two were inseparable, much to the joy of a certain barmaid, who was looking all too forward to her future nieces and nephews.  
It was even worse with Gajeel. Why the old man even let the iron dragon slayer and that water mage join the guild was beyond Laxus. And the fact that most of the guild had accepted them so quickly was even more confusing. Did everyone have short-term memory loss to forget exactly that those two were once a part of Phantom Lord? Granted they hadn't done anything wrong, but Phantom Lord didn't have the best reputation before the guild was mysteriously destroyed. Anyway, Gajeel and that bookworm, Levy, were an item now, much to the devastation of her teammates. Laxus had a sneaking suspicion that the only reason Gajeel joined Fairy Tail was to get close to Levy before making her his mate.  
Not that Laxus paid much attention to them or anything, but it was a little hard to not know what was going on in the guild. But why the fuck Natsu and Gajeel were mated before him was beyond rationalization. Laxus was used to women throwing themselves at him, but he had yet to come across a woman he could imagine spending the rest of his life with. He had to wonder how the other dragon slayers had found their mates and how they knew they had found their mates. He recalled Natsu saying that he just knew Lisanna was his mate, while he had yet to hear Gajeel say anything on the matter. Not that Laxus would ever ask.  
Laxus and the Thunder Legion walked down the forest's dirt road that same afternoon, on the lookout for anyone waiting to ambush them. Word may have gotten out that the mayor of Silver Lake had hired some Fairy Tail mages to deal with the nearby dark guild, so that may have put the guild on the defensive. But Laxus' senses told him there was only one other person in the area and that they still had a long walk ahead of them to reach the dark guild.  
The one other person in their region of the forest was on the dirt road like them, so it could have been a traveler or a ranger for all Laxus knew. The mages and the unknown person came gradually closer; the presence of the other person was masked by the sheer number of trees in the woods and the trail that kept twisting and turning.  
Eventually another person came within their sights, just a few hundred feet from them. All they could see of the person was a dark green cloak wrapped around their shoulders and a pair of boots. Laxus sniffed the air and nearly stopped in his tracks. Intermingled with the scent of pine needles all around them, he could smell something...intoxicating. It smelled like honeysuckle and faintly of strawberries. But he could also smell blood. And pain. The woman (as he could tell it was a woman) they were about to meet was injured. Laxus just barely suppressed the growl that bubbled up in his throat, but his teammates looked at him all the same.  
"Laxus-sama...should we prepare to fight?" Freed asked his leader, interpreting the growl as some kind of warning.  
"No," Laxus quickly said. "She's injured. She won't attack us."  
Sure enough, Laxus could make out a face from beneath the raised hood of the cloaked woman as the two parties got closer to one another. Blonde hair fringed around a heart-shaped face while large brown eyes seemed to look through the approaching Thunder Legion. Lightly tanned skin was marred by scratches and bruises; she was also holding her left arm as if to keep it from falling off. When the woman was about ten feet away and moving to sidestep the larger party by going off the dirt path, Freed spoke up.  
"You there!" She stopped. "What is your business here?" he demanded to know. The rune mage unknowingly set Laxus on edge. All the dragon slayer wanted to do was bypass this girl and get to the dark guild's hall. There was something about the woman that made the dragon in him pace back and forth, as if there was something ominous about her. And Freed was only agitating his dragon by speaking to this girl.  
The girl pushed the hood on her head back a little to reveal her pretty face. She arched a perfect eyebrow at Freed.  
"Walking. What are you doing? Y'know, besides talking to random strangers in the middle of the forest," she answered. Her voice, as cynical as her reply was, agitated his dragon even more. There was a want, a need, that Laxus had to sate or he felt he would go insane. It took all of his willpower just to stand still and keep himself from...  
A shadow gliding through the forest caught Laxus' eye. He sniffed the air and focused his hearing. There was another person nearby, he could tell, but the woman's presence was so overwhelming for him it was masking the scent of the person, making their location unknown to Laxus. He turned back to the strange woman, who had continued her conversation with Freed.  
Mine...a foreign feeling bubbled up in Laxus that seemed to fathom that one word. He didn't even know who this woman was, yet she seemed...important to him somehow. Like a vision from a frequenting dream, she was familiar and strange to him all at the same time. Freed had asked her something, but Laxus hadn't been paying attention; he did hear her reply though.  
"I'm on my way back to town. I need to get my arm looked at," she said, clearly indicating her left arm was in need of repair.  
"How did you get injured?" Freed asked, continuing his third-degree questioning.  
She sighed. "I was fighting some mages from a dark guild near here and got beat up. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get going." She moved to step around Evergreen to pass the four mages. She stopped again, making eye contact with Laxus for the first time. Her chocolate brown eyes shook him to the core.  
"What?" she asked.  
It was then that Laxus realized he had unknowingly grabbed her cape when she tried to walk past him. He gulped and let go of the fabric in his hand. "Nothing," he said in a low voice, trying to appear indifferent. He looked away from her. He couldn't understand it. Why was her presence making him feel so excited?  
She looked at him a moment longer, shrugged her one good shoulder and walked past the group. Laxus continued to follow her with his eyes, even after she had walked around them and was continuing her walk down the forest path. His inner dragon roared at the sight of her walking away.  
Again, Laxus saw some movement flicker in the woods. Before he could warn her, a tentacle-like vine whipped out of the wooded forest wrapped itself around the woman; a startled cry left her lips as the vine held her dangling eight feet in the air. Just as the Thunder Legion was about to run over to her, three consecutive balls of fire were launched in their direction from the forest. The four mages easily dodged the attack, letting the fireballs hit the ground and dissipate.  
A man in dark robes emerged from the forest, followed by two other dark figures.  
One the figures stood in front the Thunder Legion with orange flames licking at his hands. The other figure stood beside him.  
The first figure in the black robes was clearly the leader.  
"Cliff, Sylvia, deal with these strangers. I want the girl for myself," he said to the other two as he faced the vine holding the girl up.  
"So, did you really think you could just run off after we went to all that trouble to catch you? Well you're-"  
"Open, Gate of the Bull, Taurus!" the woman shouted. A flash of golden light emanated and a bull-like creature appeared carrying a long-handled axe. The bull swung the axe down and severed the vine holding the girl in the air. She twisted around while in the air and landed nimbly on her feet.  
"D-did you just interrupt me?!" the man screeched, his hands fisted at his sides. The girl he was deciding to fight just gave him a hard glare as she unraveled the whip that had been attached to her hip.  
Laxus lost track of what happened after that, because the two mages in front of him decided to attack at that moment. A wall of fire appeared behind them, courtesy of the fire mage. The other mage lifted her hands as humanoid shades appeared out of the ground. Both the shades and the fire mage charged Laxus and the Thunder Legion.  
They weren't easy to take down, but Laxus and the others managed to defeat the two mages. With both mages knocked unconscious, Laxus stepped over the scorched earth where the wall of fire had been to observe the other fight that was happening.  
The mage in the dark robes had animated several trees out of the forest and was using them to attack the blonde mage in addition to the vines which he snapped like whips. The bull she had summoned earlier was chopping the trees in half and the blonde mage was weaving through the obstacle course of vines and trees to get to the man. But the vines kept lifting her up and tossing her to the side. She had lost her cloak some time ago, and was looking even more bruised and scratched up than she was before. But she continued to get back up to charge yet again into the fray.  
She seemed to be getting tired when she pulled what looked like a key from her belt and incanted, "Open, Gate of the Fire Bird, Phoenix!"  
Another flash of golden light, and a woman with fiery red hair and wings appeared. The blonde mage seemed to be directing the woman, and thanks to his superior hearing, Laxus heard exactly what she said.  
"Yes, Princess?" the woman asked.  
"Use Fire Wing on the trees and vines," the blonde instructed. The red-haired woman beat her wings and ascended above where the battle was taking place. When she was high enough, she beat her wings forward and feathers made of flames shot out toward the vines and trees. The feathers turned everything they touched to ash.  
The man in the dark robes looked flabbergasted, seeing his plants reduced to nothing. The blonde mage took advantage of the moment to swing her own whip around him and throw him into the air, only to bring him slamming back down to the ground.  
Laxus heard a groan come from the man as he remained motionless on the ground.  
The red-haired woman and the bull approached the blonde girl. She turned to them and smiled warmly.  
"Thanks Taurus, thanks Phoenix. You can go back to the Spirit World now," she told them. The bull disappeared with another flash of light, but the redhead remained behind. Concern was etched into the woman's pale face.  
"You are injured, Princess. Would you like me to heal you?" she reached out to touch her mistress. But the blonde mage shook her head and continued to smile.  
"That's not necessary, Phoenix. It's just a strained muscle. Don't waste any of your power on me," she indicated toward her injured arm. With some regret, the phoenix disappeared as well. Laxus and his teammates approached.

"You are a celestial mage?" was the first thing Freed asked, his eyes sparkling a little like when he was learning something new.

The blonde looked up as she attached her whip to her hip, her gold and silver keys jingling. "Yeah, I am," she confirmed. "And you're all from Fairy Tail, right?" she asked, eyeing their respective guild marks. They nodded. "I guess you're here to take down that dark guild. You might want to tie up those three before heading over there—they're all members," she gestured towards the three unconscious mages with a small smile.

"Didn't that man say that they had captured you?" Evergreen spoke up with suspicion. "Why did they capture you and how did you escape?"

"Oh... they wanted to get a ransom out of my family for me," she answered vaguely. "As for how I escaped? Just lucky, I guess," she shrugged and smiled brightly. Her answer didn't exactly satisfy Laxus, or any of the Thunder Legion, but she turned to leave anyway, heading towards town.

"Well, anyway. I've got to get going. See ya!" she was about to leave when Laxus stepped toward the celestial mage. "You, Blondie," he said to get her attention.

She turned away from the road and looked at him, her eyes widened in surprise. Then her eyes hardened. "It's Lucy, actually," she said with a slight pout.

"Whatever. I want you to fight me," Laxus demanded.

Lucy's eyes once more widened. "Fight you? Right now?"  
"No, tomorrow. Meet us in the middle of the town square tomorrow morning at seven."  
Her surprise vanished only to be replaced by a hard glare. She crossed her arms. "Why do you want to fight me?" she wanted to know.

Laxus smirked at her. "Curiosity. I'd like to see what a celestial mage is capable of."

"You didn't see that a few minutes ago?"

Laxus was a little stunned by the sass she gave him, but if anything, it just made him more geared up to fight the little minx. His smirk returned. "If you're scared to take on a dragon slayer, I understand," he tried to rile her up. It worked.

"I'm not scared," she returned, but Laxus could see that his words had made her bristle with anger.

"Then we'll see you tomorrow," he turned on his heel walked in the direction of the dark guild, with his team following silently behind, having taken care of the three dark mages while their leader and Lucy were talking. All three members of the Raijinshuu wondered what Laxus had in store for the mysterious celestial mage, but they knew they wouldn't know for sure until the next day.

 **Did that ending feel rushed? Cause it felt rushed to me...**

 **Oh well. On to the next chapter, then!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Falling Stars 2 – Laxus vs. Lucy**

 **Wow, another chapter?! Let's get to it!**

 ***Fairy Tail is not mine.***

The next day, Lucy met Laxus and the Thunder Legion at the appointed spot, at the town square's iron statue.  
"Didn't think you would actually come," Laxus said out loud to Lucy as she walked up to them, five minutes early to their appointed time. She was still a little bruised, but her left arm was in bandages and it looked like most of her minor injuries had healed overnight. She had a large knapsack on her back and was dressed like she was going camping. Laxus guessed she planned on walking to the next town over.  
Lucy huffed and stood a little straighter. "I always keep my promises. And I never back down from a challenge."  
He gave her his trademark smirk. "Then what do you say we make this a little more interesting? When I win, you have to kiss me," he offered.  
The look on her face was priceless. She blushed as red a tomato and began to stutter. "W-What?! W-Why would you w-want th-that?!"

He began to chuckle at her expense before saying, "Because I usually get what I want. And since we'll be departing in a few hours, getting you to sleep with me would be out of the question. So, I'll just have to settle for a kiss," he leaned towards her. Now she looked mad enough to slap him.

"Who says I'd ever sleep with you?" she struggled to keep her voice at a low volume. "Just what do you think I am?!"

He shrugged casually. "Forget it. Follow us. There's a place in the forest where we can have our fight."

Despite still being angry, Lucy followed the other four mages into the nearby woods.

Lucy set her bag down on the ground near a large tree and headed to the middle of the clearing where Laxus was. He stood there with his arms crossed, looking at her while wearing a neutral expression.  
Lucy walked up to him and placed her hands on her hips. "So how do you want to do this?" she asked.  
A corner of Laxus' closed mouth quirked upward. "Fight until there's only one of us standing. I'll try to go easy on you," he answered with a grin.  
Lucy rolled her eyes at the lightning dragon slayer. She didn't know when to take him seriously.  
Laxus inclined his head toward the opposite end of the clearing. "Go over there. I'm ready when you are."  
Lucy walked off, but Laxus' eyes never left her form, analyzing the way she walked and naturally swayed her hips.  
"Laxus-sama...if I may ask. Why do you wish to fight this girl?" Freed spoke up from behind him.  
"I want to see what her abilities are for myself."  
"Then perhaps one of us should fight her. With your power level-" Freed began a suggestion when Laxus cut him off.  
"She was able to take down a dark guild by herself, Freed. I want to gauge her strength myself."  
Freed fell silent, knowing himself that the celestial mage was no weakling by anyone's standards.  
By this time, Lucy had reached the other side of the field and turned around. Laxus stepped away from his team and faced his opponent, the coat on his shoulders swaying in the wind. He crossed his arms and stared down the celestial mage with a grin.  
"Since I'm so nice, I'll let you have the first move, Blondie." he said in a raised voice.  
"Hmph," Lucy was unamused, but pulled out a key anyway, deciding to not let the opportunity slip by. "Open, Gate of the Shield, Scutum!" she incanted. A flash of golden light, and then a monstrosity appeared. Laxus raised his brow in surprise and took in the tall spirit before him. At first, Laxus would have called it a robot, it was so boxy and seemed to be made up of only metal. But the metal visor on the head made him think that there was someone actually in the large suit of armor.  
Lucy quickly pulled out another key. "Open, Gate of the Fox, Vulpecula!"  
Once again, a flash of golden light appeared. Another spirit, this one dressed like a ninja with a fox tail, stood by Lucy.  
"Vulpecula, go in the shadows for now. I'll call you when I need you." Laxus heard Lucy clearly, even though she was speaking in a hushed tone. The fox spirit disappeared, a dark shade left in its place that wriggled like a snake toward the shadows the trees were casting on the ground. Lucy stepped forward until she was side-by-side with Scutum. She pulled out the whip that was stationed at her hip. Laxus raised an eyebrow at her.  
"And what are you going to do with that?" he asked.  
She brandished the whip. "I fight alongside my spirits," she answered.  
Laxus hadn't been expecting that. But that just made things more interesting.  
"Let's go, Scutum," she told her spirit. Both master and spirit charged Laxus, Scutum being far faster than Laxus expected him to be. The earth beneath Laxus tremored slightly with each step the armored spirit took toward him.  
Laxus released a lightning bolt in Lucy's direction, reasoning that by taking out the master, he could stop the spirit. But Lucy easily dodged it, surprising him. Scutum was nearly on top of Laxus, forcing the dragon slayer's attention on the spirit. Figuring the spirit would just be as conductive as any metal, he fired large bolts of lightning at Scutum. At the last second, the spirit stopped, brought its arms together, and formed a giant shield from the attachments on its arms, blocking the lightning. Hm, Laxus thought that would work.  
Laxus suddenly felt something wrap around his ankle and pull at him. He had been slightly distracted by the spirit, but he hadn't completely forgotten about Lucy. Lucy had managed to get the end of her whip wrapped around his ankle and she was attempting to get him off balance. Laxus smirked at her efforts and jerked his foot back. What he wasn't expecting was the amount of force she pulled him back with once his foot was off the ground. She was stronger than she looked.  
"Now!" she suddenly yelled just before Laxus felt something come into contact with the back of his head. He pitched forth, straight into the dirt. His arms broke most of his fall, and he looked up just in time to see the fox spirit from before back-flipping toward Lucy. Little fucker must have kicked him from behind. Laxus got up off the ground and brushed himself off with a slight grin as he untangled himself from the whip.  
"I admit I wasn't expecting that, Blondie. Guess I'll actually have to take this seriously." He whipped his coat from his shoulders and tossed it to the side.  
Lucy looked mad. "Stop wasting my time!" she yelled as she stretched the whip between her hands. The metallic spirit charged Laxus a second time, the earth rumbling beneath their feet. He could see the fox spirit charging him on his left. Laxus let out dual bolts of lightning at the spirits. The fox dodged the bolts, but the shield spirit once again stopped and blocked it by syncing its arms together.  
"Use Spirit Beam!" Lucy shouted.  
Laxus looked at the shield spirit just in time to see its shield glow white. Sensing something was coming, Laxus rolled out of the way just before a beam of white light was shot out of the middle of the shield towards where he had been one second prior. Even though he was a good six or seven feet away from the beam, he could still feel the intense heat from the spell. Once the beam disappeared, Laxus looked behind him and gaped. Three once healthy-looking trees were now singed black by the intense Spirit Beam Scutum had aimed at him. That could have been him.  
He turned back around to see Vulpecula's foot aimed right for his face. He again rolled out of the way and stood up to face his new challenger. The fox spirit threw quick punches and kicks at the dragon slayer, but Laxus was just as quick to dodge and block them. When the fox landed a punch on Laxus' forearm, the dragon slayer sent a powerful shock to the spirit, forcing it backwards, but it jumped right back up. Laxus dodged the end of Lucy's whip by diving off to the side and running behind Scutum, then releasing a bolt at the spirit. Attacking from behind proved effective as it vanished back into the Celestial World. Lucy didn't stop attacking and neither did the fox spirit as it changed into a shadow and came at Laxus from different sides, landing a few blows onto the tough dragon slayer. Just as the fox was about to attack again, Laxus charged his body with electricity so that when the blow connected, Vulpecula was shocked backwards again. The fox disappeared in a cloud of gold dust.

Lucy snapped her whip, not giving up. She aimed for Laxus, but the end of the whip only caught around his forearm, not quite immobilizing him. He was about to send a lightning bolt directly at her when Laxus felt his chest clench painfully, like something had a grip around his heart. He faltered for a moment but managed to keep his footing. He shook his head as the pain lessened and thoughts of attacking her disappeared. Deciding to just end the fight, he grabbed onto Lucy's whip and yanked it hard, clean out of her hands. It was over.

"Looks like I win, Blondie," he twirled the end of her whip in one hand, a cocky smile on his lips. Lucy sighed and crossed her arms.

"Guess so," she grumbled as she approached him. She held her hand out to him to get her whip back from him. Instead of returning her weapon to her though, Laxus leaned forward and tapped the corner of his lips, waiting. Lucy blinked at him, not understanding what he wanted.

"Remember our deal?" he reminded her. A blush instantly crept up her face and she took a step back. "You're not getting your whip back otherwise, Blondie," he told her.

It looked like Lucy was forcing herself to refrain from slapping him again. She frowned as she took a hesitant step forward and aimed her lips for Laxus' cheek. But he turned his head at the last second so that their lips connected. Lucy gave a small shriek as she recoiled from the static shock she received. She glared at Laxus angrily, but ignored his own bewildered expression.

"You shocked me!" she accused. Laxus was unsure why she had been shocked, since he felt it too. Only instead of feeling like a static electric shock, it felt more like he'd been struck by his own lightning. Not exactly painful, but it felt like a warmth had enveloped him, encompassing him like no other human contact had before. Laxus was glad when Lucy turned to retrieve her bag, otherwise she would have seen his blush.

He quickly recovered and handed her whip back to her when she returned to him. She glared at him one last time and turned on her heel, leaving Laxus and the Raijinshuu behind. Laxus' hand twitched as he just barely restrained himself from reaching out to grab her hand, anything to prevent her from leaving him. Wait, what?

Laxus shook his head as his teammates walked up to him after Lucy left.

"I hope that kiss was worth almost missing our train," Evergreen spoke up. "Though Lucy didn't seem too happy about it...why did she yell at you anyway?"

"No reason," Laxus said quickly before anyone could say anything. "Let's get going," he stated and headed for town, the Thunder Legion following close behind.

Laxus felt...confused for some reason. He'd never gotten such a strong reaction from a kiss alone before, nor had his own magic betrayed him by shocking a person he didn't mean to. Though it might not have been his magic...and there was that pain he felt when they were fighting. Why hadn't he attacked her? What was wrong with him? Maybe he needed to get his heart checked out. Yeah, that was it...

Little did Laxus know what was coming. Meeting the celestial mage might have been an act of fate, almost as if something had guided them to each other. And fate wasn't done yet...

 **Okay, kind of a short chapter, but chapter 3 is coming soon!**

 **I guess the fight between Laxus and Lucy wasn't exactly necessary, but I kind of wanted to showcase some of Lucy's spirits. Would love to hear your thoughts!**


End file.
